Initial findings from the GSMA’s 2013 Mobile Money Adoption Survey show there are now 208 live ‘mobile money for the unbanked’ services running in 83 countries, with an additional 117 deployments already planned.
That compares with 178 services across 74 countries in January.
Sub-Saharan Africa hosts 53% of all mobile money services worldwide, with services in 36 out of its 47 countries.
Globally, there are now at least two mobile money services in 51 markets. This compares to 40 markets with at least two services at the end of 2012 and 33 at the end of 2011. At least nine services now have more than one million active users.
Chris Locke, Managing Director of GSMA Mobile for Development, said “The impressive and encouraging results of the study demonstrate that mobile money services are increasingly reaching scale and are becoming even more essential in providing convenient and affordable financial services to the underserved. This survey offers an important snapshot of the mobile money industry today and also gives mobile money service providers a valuable source of benchmark data. Through our Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme, the GSMA is committed to facilitating the widespread adoption of mobile money services by identifying and sharing operational best practices, as well as working with operators to create commercially viable, interoperable mobile money services to enable greater financial inclusion.”
Full results from the 2013 Mobile Money Adoption Survey will be published at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona.